John Ratcliffe says the FBI has evidence that refutes the basis for Mueller's investigation into Trump

A top Republican lawmaker has revealed that the FBI has evidence that "directly refutes" the foundation for Robert Mueller's investigation the Trump Campaign's alleged collusion with Russia.

Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe said on Sunday that the Bureau is withholding vital information that directly contradicts the evidence that was provided to federal judges on the surveillance court in order to get a FISA warrant to spy on Donald Trump and officials working on his election campaign.

Republican lawmakers have long hinted that the FBI was holding back information that undercut the government’s premise for opening the Trump-Russia probe in 2016.

For months, Republicans have suggested that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has evidence related to Trump's former campaign advisor, George Papadopoulos, whose conversation with an Australian diplomat triggered the FBI to open the investigation into the Trump campaign.

Now, during an interview with Fox News, Ratcliffe has provided the clearest picture so far of what the FBI withheld from the surveillance court, implying the information does, in fact, relate to Papadopoulos.

The Obama Administration and and FBI officials withheld vital evidence for the Trump-Russia probe

According to the Daily Caller, Ratcliffe noted that the FBI opened its investigation on July 31, 2016, after receiving information from the Australian government about a conversation that Papadopoulos had on May 10, 2016, with Alexander Downer, the top Australian diplomat to the U.K.

Downer claimed that Papadopoulos told him that Russians had derogatory information on Hillary Clinton.

But Ratcliffe, a top member of the House Judiciary Committee, suggested on Sunday that the FBI and Justice Department had information that contradicted its intelligence on Papadopoulos.

“Hypothetically, if the Department of Justice and the FBI have another piece of evidence that directly refutes that, that directly contradicts that, what you would expect is for the Department of Justice to present both sides of the coin to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to evaluate the weight and sufficiency of that evidence,” Ratcliffe said.

“Instead, what happened here was Department of Justice and FBI officials in the Obama administration in October of 2016 only presented to the court the evidence that made the government’s case to get a warrant to spy on a Trump campaign associate,” he added.

George Papadopoulos arrives for his sentencing hearing at U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., September 7, 2018

The FBI’s FISA applications also referred to Papadopoulos, but the documents are so heavily redacted that it is not clear why he is mentioned.

Other Republican lawmakers have hinted that intelligence exists which exonerates Papadopoulos, who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts he had with a Maltese professor named Joseph Mifsud.

Ratcliffe said that declassification of a batch of FBI and Justice Department documents “would corroborate” his claims about the Papadopoulos intelligence.

Republicans have pressed President Trump to declassify the documents, which include 21 pages from a June 2016 FISA application against Page.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes has said that the FBI failed to provide “exculpatory evidence” in the FISA applications. He has also said that Americans will be “shocked” by the information behind the FISA redactions.

Trump ordered the documents declassified on Sept. 17, but rescinded the order four days later.

In backtracking from the request, Trump said that the Justice Department and two foreign allies had asked him not to declassify the documents.

“My opinion is that declassifying them would not expose any national security information, would not expose any sources and methods,” said Ratcliffe.

“It would expose certain folks at the Obama Justice Department and FBI and their actions taken to conceal material faces from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.”